Should the Former OPEC President Really Head a UN Climate Summit?

This year's UN climate talks, COP18 in Qatar, to begin on the 26th of November, are upon us with perhaps the least fanfare of any COP in recent memory.

Perhaps that's because no one really places much faith that these talks will amount to anything scientifically meaningful in addressing climate change, soon approaching runaway, irreversible, catastrophic climate change at the way things are going in terms of carbon emissions and expanding fossil fuel use.

Al-Attiyah recently spoke in glowing terms of the boom in shale gas. It will "give the world 300 years of security" he says, entirely overlooking the fact that the IEA just laid out in no uncertain terms what needs to happen to keep temperature rise below the 2°C target Al-Attiyah is supposed to be shepherding the climate talks towards.